By purchasing a $15-per-month subscription to CloudLift (after a seven-day trial), users will be able to access streaming versions of supported games that they already own. The idea is to let users play the downloadable versions of these games locally on their main computer, while also giving them wider access to streaming versions of those same games on less powerful devices such as tablets, laptops, smart TVs, microconsoles and the like.

Users can therefore sample the advantages of streaming games on secondary devices while still owning a local version that isn't subject to potential issues of input latency or video quality. OnLive is also touting "technology and performance upgrades and a new user interface" to help with those issues, including the addition of "thousands of new servers" with high-end GPUs and CPUs in the last year and new data centers in Chicago and Seattle.

CloudLift supports 20 games as of its launch today, including Batman: Arkham Origins, The LEGO Movie Videogame, and Saints Row IV, with "dozens more planned" for support in the future. Supported games can be purchased directly from OnLive or through digital distribution services like Steam, and players can sync save data between their local downloaded version and the cloud-streamed version of their games.

The new CloudLift service is separate from OnLive's existing PlayPack subscription option, which offers streaming access to over 250 games for a $10-per-month fee. That makes CloudLift's $15 monthly fee seem a bit pricey, especially considering that it requires users to also purchase a separate downloadable copy of each game they want to stream. But OnLive VP of Product and Marketing Rick Sanchez told Ars that CloudLift is built around a different licensing model from OnLive's previous offerings.

"PlayPack is designed around back catalog. It's a lot more like a Netflix model than anything else," Sanchez said. "CloudLift is intended to bring games that are very new to you for streaming. Our most recent title is The Lego Movie, which just came out a couple weeks ago. The goal is to be as close, if not day and date, to our CloudLift games."

"We did a lot of market testing to try to find the right price," he added. "$14.99 seemed like the right price to start with... We hope that we've got the right price for it. Time will tell."

Alongside the CloudLift announcement, OnLive also revealed OnLive Go, a new service offering instant streaming access to MMOs and virtual worlds. The service is rolling out initially through Second Life Go, a beta mobile viewer for the popular PC-based online world.

The new moves come courtesy of a new management team for the transitioning company, led by IGN founder/CEO and former Vudu CEO Mark Jung as OnLive's new Executive Chairman. Jung joins former EA Director of Partner Management Carrie Holder, who recently joined the company as VP of Business Development, and former Gracenote VP Don Gordon, who became OnLive's Senior VP of Engineering last year.

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Kyle Orland
Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in the Washington, DC area. Emailkyle.orland@arstechnica.com//Twitter@KyleOrl